3.3: New Official Tier 10 Previews

Not too long ago, we told you that Blizzard was planning on previewing the new tier of class armor on their very own website. They kicked off their Tier 10 catalog earlier in the month by showing off gear for the Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, and Warrior classes, presumably in an attempt to control the flow of information about what to expect in future content (community manager Nethaera even made a forum post to that effect). Since then, almost every other set has been revealed through data-mining, which places the “Big B” behind the curve.

The interesting thing about this whole dynamic is that it must be something of a buzzkill for the art and development teams; their work is revealed and scrutinized before its even officially available. As a result, fans who don’t mind the spoilers end up jumping to conclusions and — often times — making rather pejorative statements about the aesthetic qualities of the armor. The public can be  a truly harsh mistress. I suppose the question at that point is: as an artist at Blizzard, do you stick to your guns or do you take the extra time to go back and tweak how the equipment looks? Well, at least this time, the response is to release more previews. After all, even if you’re producing art for a commercial product like World of Warcraft, the medium is sometimes about pushing the consumers’ expectations.

Let’s take a quick look at the three new additions to the official sneak peek:

Rogue - Tier 9 never really did it for me. Having to share the same basic look with other classes took away from the “lithe and deadly” feel that Rogue armor should. Instead, I got to run around like some goofy, shield-toting knight or something. Thankfully, Tier 10 marks a return to form with a set of armor based on the characteristically agile “geist” enemy. Well, aside from the gigantic shoulders, anyway (but then again, what class doesn’t have huge pauldrons?). Notice the trademark “closed hood” design of the helmet, and the glowing bits are a nice touch, as well.

Warlock - I’m sensing a hint of Gul’Dan here, and considering that he was considered to be, quite possibly, the most skilled and powerful Warlock that has ever lived, that’s nothing but a compliment to players of this class. That he was a former student of Ner’Zhul (i.e. one half of the Lich King) makes it even more fitting for a Tier 10 outfit. In my opinion, the pointed hood and skull-mask really make this one of the better Warlock sets out there.

Mage - Now this one, I admit, I’m having trouble pin-pointing. There’s some sort of cohesive design here, but I’m not sure that it screams “Mage” to me. Just looking around the internet at what other people have suggested, there are all sorts of inspirations they could’ve used for the Mage set. Liches, like the once-Mage Kel’Thuzad, would’ve worked, just as well as a basic Frostwyrm design. Tier 10 seems serviceable, but I can’t help but think that they missed some serious potential with this one.

Now that I’ve give you my thoughts on the latest Tier 10 reveals, I’d like to hear what you folks in the Project Lore community think of them. Spew your words below!